Toroidal bed reactors are well known and are described in, for example, EP1652576, GB2418382, EP0382769 and EP0293103. These reactors provide a fast and efficient means for processing feedstock materials and, in particular, thermally processing materials. The material to be processed is fed into a toroidal bed reactor and forced to circulate by a processing fluid that enters at or near the base of the reactor. Once the material has been processed there are various ways in which the material can be discharged from the toroidal bed reactor:                for materials that once processed are significantly reduced in size, the material can be removed from the reaction chamber entrained in the processing fluid. For example, the processed material may leave with the processing fluid via an exhaust outlet;        for particles which do not become sufficiently smaller and/or less dense once processed, an opening can be made in the outer wall to allow a portion of the circulating particles to leave the chamber. Due to the circulating motion of the material, making an opening in the outer wall allows the material to exit the chamber radially outwards, travelling along a tangential pathway. The height of this opening can be carefully selected to permit the removal of a given particle size and, hence, to encourage only processed material to be removed;        a central hole can be provided in the chamber so that once a sufficient weight of material collects at the base of the chamber, i.e. the chamber is overloaded and slumps, a portion of the material can tumble into the hole and out of the chamber;        the process can be performed in a batchwise manner such that once sufficient material has been processed the chamber can be opened and the material removed.        
Obviously, where the material is entirely decomposed by the treatment conditions there is no need for any solid material to be removed from the reactor.